An Idea from Another Module

Recently I have been inspired by the series of TSB bank adverts in 2014, when they separated from Lloyds as a service. The CG animation moves fluently through the narration, with soft colours on the buildings and a different style on the people, which work well together despite the difference in look.




I originally wanted to create an animation in this style for a module I was briefed on recently, Applied Animation 2, but another idea of mine will work better for that brief.

Instead I would like to create an animation of some sort for this module, even just a series of tests, where I can combine 2D and either 3D or Stop Motion as a hybrid type style. It would be great to practice achieving a smooth-running animation to further my skills, and add my experiments to my showreel if they turn out well.

Stop Motion

One of the reasons I fell in love with the subject of animation in the first place was because of stop motion.

My first year of university in Leeds was about learning how to draw and the basics of animating - which has been very useful to be refreshed in, and I can now apply some of those skills to further my practice and discover which area of the industry I would like to delve further into.

Combining my hobbie of photography and using that as a form of animation is something that has interested me in recent years. I want to use the rest of my time at university to practice this technique and improve my skills within it; starting with the basics of the principles of animation.

The video below describes some of the principles of animation, with a cube to demonstrate each action. I would like to create an animation like this one but using a lump of plasticine and a camera. I believe this will be a good starter in getting me back into animating in this form, because it strips away everything apart from a simple object moving on the screen, and once I've practiced simple animation then I will feel more confident moving into bigger projects.


The illusion of life from cento lodigiani on Vimeo.

Combining Photography and 2D...

Recently I haven't been able to do much photography due to the amount of uni work I've had over the past few months... So I'd like to cooperate that into at least one of my projects this year! After looking through my old photos I envisioned a few scenes that could have occurred within these shots, so I decided to quickly draw a couple of examples of what I mean:

I think these images work well, especially the beach scene, despite them only being rough sketches. I can develop on them further and make the imagery more visually appealing/design some characters to go in scenes, and I could animate some of the better compilations as gifs! I have never tried giving an animation a 'cut out' look, so it will be interesting to see how it works.

This will help me practice setting up a scene and putting every aspect to the right proportions, as well as hopefully building up my showreel with a variety of techniques!